MPs' expenses: Cameron must follow bold words with action

Telegraph View:

In an important speech yesterday on our dysfunctional political system, David Cameron correctly identified the reason for the extraordinary outpouring of public anger that has greeted this newspaper's disclosures about the greed of MPs. He said the scandal had brought home to people the awful truth that they no longer have any control over what happens to them. They see a world "that is built to benefit powerful elites, and they feel a terrible but impotent anger".

That anger will ease only when Westminster's rotten apples are replaced by men and women of integrity, and it is to Mr Cameron's credit that he has made clear there is no place in Parliament for Tory MPs who have cheated the taxpayer. But the Conservative leader sees the scandal as symptomatic of a deeper malaise, a "national crisis" no less, that requires a radical redistribution of power. It is unarguable that the steady accretion of power either to the state or to Brussels under successive governments has had an insidious and malign impact on the democratic process. Can the Cameron prescription redress the balance?

Much of what he proposes makes excellent sense. Pushing power out from the centre so that local democratic control becomes a reality, not a sham, has long been advocated by this newspaper. Mr Cameron's proposal for a smaller House of Commons in which MPs, not the party machines, hold sway are also welcome. So are his plans for ensuring real political transparency by posting online not only MPs' earnings and expenses, but all major items of expenditure by national and local government. As he said, an "army of armchair auditors" will prove a most effective check on our political masters. We are less convinced by his hint at fixed-term parliaments, for this risks leaving the electorate powerless to boot out a lame-duck or corrupt administration.

Mr Cameron has shown he has grasped the enormity of what has happened these past three weeks and has formulated coherent proposals in response, in striking contrast to our curiously silent Prime Minister. He must have the guts, the energy and the tenacity to effect this transformation, should he win power. Failure to follow words with action will only further erode public trust in politicians.